[11] Mr. Parkes, in his well known Chemical Essays (ed. 1841, p. 157), after referring to the successful lighting up by Murdock of the manufactory of Messrs. Phillips and Lee at Manchester in 1805, "with coal gas issuing from nearly a thousand burners," proceeds, "This grand application of the new principle satisfied the public mind, not only of the practicability, but also of the economy of the application; and as a mark of the high opinion they entertained of his genius and perseverance, and in order to put the question of priority of the discovery beyond all doubt, the Council of the Royal Society in 1808 awarded to Mr. Murdock the Gold Medal founded by the late Count Rumford." [12] "Thus," says Mr. Charles Babbage, "in a future age, power may become the staple commodity of the Icelanders, and of the inhabitants of other volcanic districts; and possibly the very process by which they will procure this article of exchange for the luxuries of happier climates may, in some measure, tame the tremendous element which occasionally devastates their provinces."--Economy of Manufactures. CHAPTER VI. FREDERICK KOENIG: INVENTOR OF THE STEAM-PRINTING MACHINE. "The honest projector is he who, having by fair and plain principles of sense, honesty, and ingenuity, brought any contrivance to a suitable perfection, makes out what he pretends to, picks nobody's pocket, puts his project in execution, and contents himself with the real produce as the profit of his invention."--De Foe. I published an article in 'Macmillan's Magazine' for December, 1869, under the above title. The materials were principally obtained from William and Frederick Koenig, sons of the inventor. Since then an elaborate life has been published at Stuttgart, under the title of "Friederich Koenig und die Erfindung Der Schnellpresse, Ein Biographisches Denkmal. Von Theodor Goebel." The author, in sending me a copy of the volume, refers to the article published in 'Macmillan,' and says, "I hope you will please to accept it as a small acknowledgment of the thanks, which every German, and especially the sons of Koenig, in whose name I send the book as well as in mine, owe to you for having bravely taken up the cause of the much wronged inventor, their father--an action all the more praiseworthy, as you had to write against the prejudices and the interests of your own countrymen."